The trail to this area goes right through the center of Raúl's farm. He has a small restaurant with food, drinks, coffee and cigars. He is very accommodating to the climbers, but please respect his land (leave no trace!) and buy something on your way out. You'll be glad you did!

Description

Mostly sunny (depends on the wall) in winter, but it is quite humid with a lot mosquitoes. Bring your bug spray and netting. This area is sort of secluded but easy to get to. The Ensenada has a large portion of easy/moderate climbs. The limestone is stellar (read:sharp) and fun to climb. As of 12/2016, the bolts and anchors looked reliable.

Anchors The bolt anchors have uneven spacing in that they are not horizontal. One bolt will be about 8 inches above the other (standard distance apart). This makes it a little difficult when setting up an equalized top rope for non-leading friends. We brought up a 120cm sling and equalized it with a figure-8. The hard part is finding room to keep your PAS in since there are not any chains on most of these anchors. Personally, I don't enjoy clipping into the nylon cord that ties the two bolts together. You will see this at the top of many routes. (Who knows how old that cord is?!)

Note In order to prolong the life of the hardware at the anchors, please only rap the routes (i.e. - don't toprope or lower on the rap rings. Cubans only have access to hardware (bolts, rings, etc.) that we bring them. Place your own gear when toproping.

Grading Route grading in Cuba is fairly consistent with other modern sport crags. You don't get the old-school ratings or sandbagging. The route is graded what it should be (IMO). This is helpful because I know when I'm about to get on a project or on something I can cruise. To my knowledge, none of us had a "surprise" route that caught us off guard (in terms of grading).

Pigs! You will hear pigs in the bushes. They are farm animals and won't attack/hurt you. They're fun to take pictures of from the top of routes!

Getting There

OK, first thing: This is Cuba and all of these areas are under constant development. Part of the experience is adventuring into the unknown. With that said, getting to Ensenada de Raúl is pretty easy.

Note: See the pictures as they have actual images of the path. 25 min. walk on easy terrain

1- In Viñales, go to the intersection of Salvador Cisneros and Adela Azcuy (this is the center of town).

2- Walk North on Adela Azcuy (baseball field will be on your left). As you go further down, there will be what looks like a fork (with a yellow house on the left). Stay to the left.

3- Walk until you come to a left/right fork in the road (there is a restaurant on your left with outdoor seating). Take a right at the fork and then an immediate left into the property of Raúl Reyes' farm (you will see a sign that says as much).

4- Keep following the path on the farm until you reach Raúl's restaurant. If he's there, he'll greet you and tell you about his place (brush up on your Spanish!). Take a minute to say hi and talk. He's a really nice guy and he epitomizes Cuba (wonderful people!).

5- Keep following the path up to a gate. Go through the gate (close it behind you to make sure animals don't get in/out) and turn left. Go over the makeshift ladder into the animal pen (yes, you need to go through this to get to the climbs).

6- After exiting the animal pen, you will be back on the path. Keep following the path up as it rises in elevation through a scrambly approach (one of us was in flip flops).

7- You will arrive into a clearing in the Ensenada where you can look for the open walls. Anything without vegetation covering the walls will likely have bolts.